


The Show Must Go On

by ovijiaboardz



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Despair, Gen, Good and Evil, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Moral Dilemmas, Self-Destruction, Spoilers, Ultimate Despair (Dangan Ronpa)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 04:12:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17338358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ovijiaboardz/pseuds/ovijiaboardz
Summary: Shirogane was becoming far too attached to her creation. This won’t do.





	The Show Must Go On

Her eyes were practically sparkling. Her expressions of gratitude were a hot flame that burning dangerously close to Shirogane’s cold heart, warming it. It was just a !manicure, but it was still Akamatsu's first manicure, and she loved it. 

“They’re beautiful,” she gushed. “I can barely even recognize my own nails!” 

Tsumugi wasn’t tragic. She was plain, yes, but she was not tragic. She refused to be tragic. She was cruel to the bone, just like Enoshima. She was the awful mastermind, the traitor hiding amoung all her classmates. She wasn’t a bland, plain girl  with nothing going for her anyway. She was the wicked one with an execution planned for all her peers she ate breakfast with. Laughed with. Cried with. 

_ She wondered if Enoshima was ever truly happy. _

This was her story and she was in control. In her story so far, she had given Kaede a fairly basic looking manicure. Kaede was happier with it than she expected. She expected Kaede to thank her, leave, and forget about it. Kaede should’ve been disappointed, she should’ve been left wondering why she had such high expectations of Shirogane. She’d regret wasting her time with someone so boring, thinking something good would come out of it. 

But that wasn’t Kaede’s character. Shirogane of all people should know how she works. Instead, Kaede fed the starving for validation that Tsumugi was in denial that she ever had. 

Pathetic. If Junko were watching right now, she’d be so disappointed. She’d think a  _ validation starved, useless, trashy wannabe  _ was unworthy and undeserving of her position as the ultimate despair, as Junko Enoshima the 53rd.

Just  _ look at her.  _ Growing attached to a fictional character she created. That cheerful, optimistic protagonist who tried to see the good in everyone. Of course she became attached to Kaede, Kaede was designed to be like that. The viewers would expect to grow attached to her, then watch her slowly break down as she watched her friends kill each other, testing her strength. Then, she’d give them an unexpected twist of events. Kaede would die in the first chapter, not as a victim but as the ‘guilty’ blackened. It was an interesting, and quite frankly heartbreaking twist that Tsumugi was proud of.

That being said, Tsumugi became attached to her. She wanted to be friends with her. She wanted to explore new things with her, and go to cafes. Not in the way an author liked their original character, but in the way real, nonfictional people grew attached and made friends.

The other students were mostly kind to Shirogane, but not in the way Kaede was. They were kind out of an empty obligation, with no promises or trust building. Kaede took it one step further. Kaede made her feel human, and it terrified her. 

When they realized they had nothing left outside of their passions - Kaede’s being piano and Tsumugi’s being her otaku hobbies, anime, manga and cosplay - they decided to expand their horizons. 

Kaede, being the damned fool she was even offered to take Shirogane to a cafe once they escaped. That damn girl, always talking about escaping. This would’ve made Enoshima laugh. She always talked about escaping, and making it out with everyone else and staying friends with everyone. It drove Shirogane, who had her demise scripted, mad. 

If anyone but Akamatsu had been talking like that, it would’ve been the emptiest, most phony thing Tsumugi’s ever heard. Yet she was Kaede Akamatsu, and she was scripted to die in a matter of days. Season 53 had already started, and everything was going smooth according to plan. Shirogane couldn’t mess it up now, or try to change it. Thousands of viewers were counting on her. It was what the world wanted.

The show must go on.


End file.
